April Fools’ Day pranks from the sports world – a recap

There were plenty of April Fools’ Day pranks run in the sports world on Monday, so we decided to recap them. Some were as simple as a tweet or two, while others were slightly more elaborate.

Let’s take a look at some of the April Fools’ Day pranks from the sports world.

CLEVELAND NEWSPAPER SAYS LEBRON JAMES RE-SIGNED WITH CAVS

LeBron James had one of the most bitter splits with a professional sports team in recent memory, but the anger between Cleveland fans and James seems to have dissipated lately. Some fans are even dying to have him back. The Cleveland Plain Dealer appealed to those fans with a headline on their sports section Monday, though they really weren’t trying to hard to fool readers (did you notice the sub-headline?).

The San Francisco 49ers put some effort into their prank. At 8:00 a.m. PT Monday, the team’s Twitter account told its followers to tune in for a merchandise-related announcement they would be making an hour later. They then linked to a phony press release — complete with quotes from Jim Harbaugh — announcing the creation of a Harbaugh clothing line called the “Jim Harbaugh Collection.” They even created a photo gallery of the clothing line. We’ll give them a 10 out of 10 for effort, but a zero in plausibility. Could you ever see Jim Harbaugh getting into fashion? Neither could we.

Agent David Canter tried to pull a fast one on everyone. He told client Eric Weddle, who signed a five-year, $40 million contract with the San Diego Chargers before the 2011 season, that he had been traded to the Denver Broncos. Canter even sent tweets Monday to fake out his followers:

Wow this business never ceases to amaze me. Was just told that client Eric Weddle was traded. Gathering details now

Tony Levine has a history of pranking people on April Fools’ Day, and this year was no different. Levine, who is entering his second season as head coach of the Cougars, tried convincing fans that the school was going to be using a new logo that includes an “O” to represent the school’s full name — the University of Houston. The school even wrote up a press release about the matter complete with a funny quote from Levine about the “O” not getting enough respect before they later revealed it was just a prank.

Mike Tyson’s face tattoo has become an iconic part of the former heavyweight champion’s image. It also seems to suit his crazy, unpredictable personality perfectly. So when Tyson said Monday that he was removing the tattoo, it caused people to instantly wonder if he was taking up life on the straight and narrow.

At the doctors office this morning. Getting this tattoo removed from my face. This is going to be painful.